Novato Foundation For Public Education
Introduction to the
NFPE’s Fund Distribution Plan
The NFPE Interim Board and Support Group
have been working to develop a general fund distribution plan that, once
finalized based upon our work with the Advisory Committee, can be used as a
blueprint by the First-Term Board and the Program Committee to assist them in
their development and implementation of the NFPE’s initial fund distribution
plan.
Background
As part of our preparation for putting
together this general fund distribution plan, we located several school
districts around the greater Bay Area that shared similar characteristics with
the NUSD, and additionally that were located in cities that shared similar
characteristics with those of Novato (based on the information available at www.bayareacensus.ca.gov), and we
reviewed the fund distribution efforts of the LEFs that support each of these
districts.
Based upon our research and our underlying
mission that all students be supported equally, we have come to the following
broad conclusions concerning fund distribution for the NFPE:
¨
The
NFPE must equitably distribute its funds. In this process the NFPE will encourage the individual school
sites to collaborate more in order to increase knowledge of programs and
techniques between teachers; efficiency in using resources and dollars spent;
and in implementing programs throughout the district so that all our students
can receive a higher level of education from all our public schools.
¨
When
supporting program or distributing dollars to the school sites, the
distributions will be tied to a distribution plan, approved by the NFPE Board
and connected to curriculum based enrichment programs/materials. By striving to support curriculum based,
enrichment type programs, the NFPE will be supporting broader educational
essentials that will always need to be maintained and increased throughout our
district to encourage creativity and ingenuity from all our students and staff.
¨
For
all funds generated, 10% will be held in reserve for operations/expenses. The NFPE will seek outside grants to support
its operations but will need a reserve if the grants are not attainable at any
point in time.
¨
For
all funds generated, 3% will be held in reserve to fund an endowment. In the future the endowment will grow and be
able to sustain essential programs/grants as they are implemented and developed
in the years to come.
What Will
be in the Fund Distribution Plan?
Novato is unique in that it is a school
district that includes 8 Elementary Schools, 3 Middle Schools, 2 High Schools
and several other alternative program public schools serving approximately 7500
students. To allow the NFPE to serve such
a wide range of students several different methods of fund distribution will be
implemented initially and over a period of time. It is necessary to recognize that fund distribution types will
evolve and change as school funding fluctuates and as the NFPE grows and
matures.
Distribution types include:
A.
Distribution
to school sites based on a “per student enrollment” (not ADA) amount, annually
approved as a budget line item at the Site Leadership Team/Council.
B.
Grants
awarded from the grant writing effort will be distributed according to the grant.
C.
School
or grade level grants distributed to encourage district wide collaboration
between teachers and schools requiring the same program(s) or material(s).
D.
Support
of curriculum based, enrichment programs funded directly or channeled through
the NUSD if required.
E.
Endowment/major
gift distributions to program(s) or grants as the endowment grows or major
gifts are received.
The NFPE Board of Directors will annually
approve a distribution plan. Sustaining
excellence in the schools and an equitable distribution per student enrolled
will be the top priority of the fund distribution plan. The NFPE Board of
Directors will seek input from parents, teachers and the NUSD administration as
to the most needed programs/materials in the Novato public schools for the
following year. The distribution plan
will target areas of need at each level (i.e., elementary, middle and high
school) and will require that the distributed funds be spent accordingly. Individual sites may request of the NFPE
Board an alternative spending plan for their distribution, however they must
follow the basic guidelines of being beneficial to all students at that school site
and must collaborate with similar efforts at the same level across the
district.
Connecting
Fundraising with Fund Distribution
In order for fundraising efforts to be more
targeted, distribution types will be connected directly to the types of
fundraising used to generate funds.
Listed below are the Fundraising efforts from the Introduction to the NFPE’s Fundraising Plan and their corresponding
distribution types from the list above.
1.
The
one large event per year will
initially be used to excite the community about the NFPE and its goals. Any dollars generated from this event in the
future will be distributed as (A) a “per
student enrollment” amount to each school site.
2.
The
goal of the Sustaining Donors Program will
be to (D) equitably distribute funds
to support curriculum based, enrichment programs beneficial to all students in
the district. As the NFPE is getting started,
the supported programs and their cost will need to be determined by the NFPE’s
Board of Directors. As enough money is
generated, programs will be implemented.
Donors will be offered the opportunity to donate to a specific level of
education (i.e., elementary, middle or high school) or to an undesignated
fund. If program cannot be supported in
the first years of the NFPE then the dollars will be (A) distributed to each site in a “per student enrollment”
amount. The goal of these distributions
will be to allow sites to provide services or materials deemed to be
under-funded or non-existent, but within the guidelines of providing curricular
based programs equitably to all students.
3.
The
Business Partnership Program will support
(C) a type of granting process where
by grade levels across the district will decide on materials or program to
enrich that grade level and business partners will support these initiatives. Events like MARE; early Spanish; technology
support; the High School Career Centers; electives that are not currently
offered or that have been cut, etc., could become strong draws for the business
community to support.
4.
Grant writing distribution will be (B) tied to the specific grants that
are received. Grants should be targeted
to need across the district and to general operations for the NFPE. Grant writing at the NFPE can help
coordinate site based efforts that are similar to each other and create one
effort to benefit a larger group of students than is now being achieved.
5.
Other efforts (i.e., escrip, Target,
other loyalty programs, a community directory, etc.) will generate funds to be (A) distributed equally in a “per
student enrollment” amount to each school site to support site based need and
general operations. These outreach
programs will target non-parents to encourage the community at large to easily
support their pubic schools.
6.
The
Endowment/Major Gifts area will fund
(C & D & E) program/ grants
as deemed important by the Board of Directors and the donors. As the NFPE wishes that all funds donated
will find their way into the classroom supporting curriculum based, enrichment program,
the Board of Directors will work with all major donors to coordinate the
donors’ wishes with the needs of the Novato public schools.
7.
Volunteerism will be distributed as
needed by grade level program. As the
volunteer outreach and programs are established volunteers will be equitably
dispersed throughout the sites to achieve the most efficient use of time and
people to give the best level of support possible for the schools. Research on how to set up a volunteer
program still needs to be done and a good staring place is http://www.marinnexus.org/vol_center/index.cfm . The NFPE hopes that programs like “Literacy
Volunteers”, “Homework Helpers”, and “Career Mentors” can begin a broad range
of help for the schools, teachers and students in the future.
8.
Unsolicited dollars will be used in one of the
distribution methods above at the discretion of the Board of Directors if no
other instructions are given by the donor.
How will the NFPE account
for distributions to the NUSD and Sites?
As stated in the Fundraising Plan, the NFPE
intends to build a bridge between the NUSD and the community of Novato. To this end fund distribution must be
extremely clear and understandable.
The NFPE will strive to distribute funds
directly to supported programs or to sites, however, where dollars must
be channeled through the district office to support district wide programs, a
separate account will be maintained at the district for the NFPE into which
funds will be distributed and dispersed.
The NUSD will bill the NFPE for agreed upon funds so that dollars can be
audited prior to being distributed to the NUSD with the path of distribution
for those dollars through the NUSD budget clearly mapped out. The NFPE believes this billing process will
diminish any misgivings or questions concerning the use of the dollars by the
NUSD.
School sites will also need to set up a line
item within their site budgets, approved yearly by Site Leadership teams, to
account for their use of “per student enrollment” distributions made to them.
The NFPE Finance Committee will be
responsible for monitoring/tracking and clearly defining to the public how the
distributed funds are spent.
At this point,
given the size and number of tasks that still lie before us in our effort to
get the NFPE up and running, we are hopeful that enough volunteers can be
gathered to form the Program Committee immediately (i.e., instead of waiting
until the First-Term Board chairs and staffs it), and that this committee can
then take on the task of completing the fund distribution plan.
Joyce McCarron will
be the Interim Chair of the Program Committee.
Anyone interested in working on this committee is encouraged to contact her
for more details. Joyce can be reached
at (415) 898-1758, or via e-mail joycem@nfpe.org.